Pages

22 June 2012

199. NeCTAR -Virtualisation of Australian compute resources -- first steps

So they are seeing whether they can make more efficient use of the compute resources at different institutions in Australia by creating a cloud to pool their resources. One of the potential solutions is called NeCTAR.

To be able to log in via ssh you need to know what username to use -- it's (probably) image specific.To find out, click on the image name (here: testing4)

Click me

Hit the 'Log' tab

Select 'log'

And look for the username which is created in addition to root

Look for the username -- here it's debian

ssh -v -i ~/.ssh/tmp/nectar debian@115.146.92.154
The authenticity of host '115.146.92.154 (115.146.92.154)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 81:a8:a7:0f:a9:68:a0:08:f1:60:45:e3:57:2e:4c:4c.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '115.146.92.154' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.

Once you're in you'll be greeted by:

Linux unnamed-virtual-machine 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Thu Mar 22 17:26:33 UTC 2012 x86_64
The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.
Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
debian@i-00001637:~$

When you're done, don't forget to log out and terminate your image. If you leave it running it will count towards your resource allocations.

Terminating

Notes:

1.you'll run into trouble with the key fingerprints eventually as the IP addresses and key fingerprints won't be matching. Either you'll be doing a lot of editing of you ~/.ssh/known_hosts file or you have to relax your security setttings.2. Yes, you can log in as root as well. The default user does not have sudo powers.

3. It takes about 60 seconds after the launch of the image before the openssh server is up and accepting connections. Think more desktop speeds than laptop+SSD speeds.

4. For actual production stuff you can crank up the image requirements:

16 cores and 65 GB? Why, thank you!

5. Also, I think the real value of using virtual machine is that you can load a vanilla setup and customize it, then saving it by making a snapshot:

Snapshot saves

A first couple of actions might be to add a new user, and edit /etc/sudoers.Troubleshooting ssh:If you're having problems logging in using your key, use the ssh -v switch as shown above and parse the outputUnsuccessful: